Drones plant one billion trees a year

BioCarbon Engineering
UK (Oxford)

An ex-NASA engineer is waging war against the global scourge of industrial scale deforestation by using industrial scale reforestation to solve the problem. Lauren Fletcher plans to speed up the expensive process of hand-planting with his start-up, BioCarbon Engineering. Their motto is ‘Changing the world… 1 billion trees at a time’ and Fletcher is bringing out the big guns. Or, in this case, drones.

As 26 billion trees are currently burned down annually, with only 15 billion replanted, he has calculated his team can replant one billion a year with two men manning multiple quad-copters – first mapping potential areas for restoration, then firing biodegradable, spherical pods with pre-germinated seeds from the air. Having been recognised by the Drones for Good competition and awarded the Skoll Venture Award, full field tests to reverse the damage done to the ecosystem over hundreds of years will start within six months.

BioCarbon Engineering is No.7 on the Best Atlas projects 2015. Find out what else made the list here.

Written by

Lisa Goldapple, Editor, Atlas of the Future (28 July 2015)

Project leader

Lauren Fletcher, CEO, Biocarbon Engineering

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